Rebuilding in New Orleans Quickens Pace

More homes are being rebuilt in the areas that were hardest hit by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita three years ago, a sign that the region continues to make strides, a new study shows.

A survey of 2,435 homes in Orleans and St. Bernard parishes showed 62% of homes had either been rebuilt or are in the process of being renovated, according to the University of New Orleans study. Last year, 35% of the homes in those areas had significant reconstruction.

In 2006, that number was 15%, said Peter Yaukey, chairman of the university's geography department and the study's author.

The report each year analyzes where residents in the region are rebuilding and is considered a barometer of the overall health of the post-Katrina reconstruction effort.

"The rebuilding has really accelerated over the last 14 months," he said. "It's very encouraging."

The homes surveyed were chosen at random from within a U.S. Census grouping and each had a watermark at least above the doorjamb, a telltale sign of flooding, he said.

The study also showed:

•Homes are being renovated at a faster pace this year than in 2007, when 57% of the houses in the survey were classified as gutted. This year, 27% were at that stage.

•More homes have been demolished to make way for new construction.

•Only 3% of the homes had emergency trailers on the properties, compared with 12% last year.

The study is important because it points out where people are rebuilding across the two parishes, an important piece to the rebuilding puzzle, said Dan Rothschild, who is leading a long-term study of New Orleans' recovery through George Mason University's Mercatus Center.

The survey showed neighborhoods rebounding at different rates.

In the Carrollton district of Uptown New Orleans, for example, 95% of the homes were renovated or being worked on, Yaukey said. The Arabi neighborhood in St. Bernard Parish, just beyond the Lower 9th Ward, had only 10%, he said.